I have been in contact with a descendant of John Bolton, former Sexton of St Thomas' Church, Barrowford; my Great, great, great grandad. He has generously scanned photographs and newspaper cuttings. It just goes to show that there is a lot of information out there and the interweb thingy is a fantastic place. I have a photograph that takes me back another generation of direct ancestry. I think I have my weekend sorted!

Not quite right yet Julie. Copy the image URL from the top box in the gallery when viewing your image. Place your cursor in your post where you want the image to appear then click the little mountain icon in the post editor. Paste the URL copied from the gallery into "enter link for image" and then click "Insert into Message".

Almost directly across from the entrance gates to the old St. Thomas' church stood a cottage known as The Hubby (an old word meaning small roadside farm). The Hubby gave its name to Hubby Causeway, the stretch of road 8 roods in length running from the top of Bank Stile westward to the beginning of Wheatley Lane Road near Clough Farm.

A name that was synonomous with the Hubby for over fifty years was that of Bolton. John Bolton married Ann Sutcliffe andbetween them they had 20 surviving children, Rushton being the youngest of them. What is now the Oaklands Home Farm was known as Lower Hubby Causeway and living there in 1845 was William Baldwin who owned and occupied the; 'house, garden, barn, mistal, pasture and holme together rated at £42: 7s: 6d.'

John Brown farmed Trough Laithe Farm alongside his business as a part-time property auctioneer. Brown was responsible for selling many farms around the district during the later nineteenth century, an example being an auction he carried out in September 1857 for the sale of the Lower Hubby Causeway buildings of a house, garden, barn and mistal in the possession of Thomas Nowell. Also for sale are all of the surrounding fields around the Hubby on which some of the cottages of Church Street and Back Church Street now stand. Particulars for the auction were to be had from Mr Stephen Wilson's house (the George and Dragon) or from Mr Ingham Walton of Bank House. Robert Hayurst is in possession of the original large poster relating to the sale where it is stated that one of the fields, named Hole Hurst and Holme, would be suitable for the erection of a mansion house. This, however, was not to be and in the early 1950s the housing estates of Oaklands Avenue and Higher Causeway were built on this land. The fields above the Hubby were called Hubbycourse Meadow and Barn Field – John Barrowclough built his Oaklands House on the boundary between these areas of land. The Hubby was demolished around 1870 to make way for the Oaklands Lodge.
Opposite to Hubby Causeway, next to the old St. Thomas' churchyard, is to be found a barn conversion once known as Hubby Causeway Barn. This was probably a barn attached to the to the Lower Hubby Farm estate. A plan of 1847 shows that the yard attached to the barn (which is possibly of late 18th century date) occupied the western end where the large Higher Causeway House is now attached.

This higher status house was always known as 'Lonsdale's House' in the earlier part of the 20th century after the family of that name who lived there. At the end of the high walled gardens to the west of Lonsdale's House stands a solitary gatepost which bears testionony to the days when the road here was a dirt track with a gate across. Here, where the new vicarage now stands, was a trackway which branched off Hubby Causeway down to Lower Clough Farm and onward to the ford over the river at Reedyford. This area, where Higher Causeway now meets with Church Street, was known as Grey Stiles, probably as a reference to the age of the path or trackway.

At the far end of Corlass Street stands the row of 2-6 Victoria Street where, on the end of this street, we find Stanley Place (64-66 Gisburn Road) and the two shops at 68-70 Gisburn Road. As was the case with the houses of Victoria Street these properties were built by Henry Atkinson on land belonging to Mary Ann Berry of Holmefield House. In 1877 Doctor John Lord purchased the two properties of Stanley Place from Atkinson for the sum of £600 on a lease of 999 years. Dr Lord moved his wife, Jean, and 7 year-old daughter, Margaret Ellen (Nellie), and 5 year-old Jane Elizabeth into Stanley Place in the April of 1877 and the family (with the addition of son John in 1878) lived there until 1896 when the property was sold to John Bolton, a painter and decorator who occupied the neighbouring shop at number 68. John Bolton paid Dr Lord £680 for the property, £400 of which he borrowed from the Burnley Building Society. The Boltons were a well established Barrowford family, the head of which had been John Bolton of the Hubby, a cottage that stood across from the old St. Thomas' church until 1870. John Bolton, of Stanley Place, had 4 children; Alice, Clara, Clement and Vina – Clement followed in his father's footsteps as a decorator.

On 17th June 1917 John Bolton conveyed the property of Stanley Place to his children and in February 1922 Vina Bolton married William Hargreaves at the Congregational Chapel on Church Street. In April 1924 Alice Bolton married Frederick Rawson at the Congregational Chapel and in 1927 Clement Bolton died. In November 1932 the property of Stanley Place was rendered freehold when the Clitheroe Estate Company, who were the Lords of the Forest of Pendle, extinguished all manorial incidents saved by an Act of 1922 (Part V) – in other words, for a sum of £6: 3s: 1d all rents, fines and fees were discharged by the Estate Company.

In the 1880s and 90s the grocery shop at number 70 Gisburn Road was run by Timothy Duckworth, whose brother was a wholesale confectioner on Church Street. Sometime before 1918 Clara Bolton had taken over the grocery shop and her brother, Clement, was running the decorating business next door at number 68. By 1946 Clara had retired and was living with her widowed sister, Alice Rawson, at number 66 (Stanley Place) - living next door at 64 were their sister Vina and her husband, William Hargreaves. By this time number 68 had become a watchmaker and jewellers shop run by Frank Hall, living at the back was Harry Holt, a twister at Berry's Mill, and the grocery shop at number 70 was a hairdressers run by Mrs. A Chamberlain. Clara Bolton died in 1954, Alice Rawson in 1958 and Vina died in April 1960; her cousins inherited Stanley Place in 1961 and turned number 64 into two flats - 66 being sold at that time.

MIss Clara Bolton outside 70 Gisburn Road, Barrowford in 1920

St. Thomas' could boast a renowned church choir and in 1875 the members were;

1843: Abraham Holt built the first organ and was the first organist
2nd was Ormerod Barrowclough
3rd was Mrs. Every Clayton
4th was John Pollard
5th was Henry Bolton
6th was Robert Rushton
7th was Thomas Brooks
8th was Varley Moore
1900: William Mantle was confirmed as the organ blower for 5 years and Humphrey Haworth was the choirmaster.

1891 (January). - The Rev. A. F. Studdy Studdy, in referring to the death of the old sexton, John Bolton, said that he had opened nearly 1,500 graves.

John Bolton, of the "Hubby," used to fetch six quarts of good blue milk daily from the Laund at ½d. per quart. In Barrowford at the present time there are 32 registered milk purveyors.

It (the White Bear Inn) was built, according to the date chiselled on it, in 1607, but Mr. Carr, in his work, "Annals of Colne," gives the date as 1615; but old John Bolton, the village sexton, said it was much older than was generally supposed, and that the stone bearing the date had been turned, the original date being on the reverse side of the stone.

Old John Bolton and his wife (née Anne Sutcliffe), for fifty years lived at the "Hubby," as the old cottages were called which stood on the site of Oaklands Lodge. They had twenty living children born to them. Rushton Bolton, of Russell Street, who has just passed away, was the youngest of them.When the children were growing up, they wanted an oven and boiler in place of the old-fashioned hobs. John asked Christopher Grimshaw if he would put one in. "Who is your landlord?" he was asked, and the reply was, "I do not know." "Well, but to whom do you pay rent?" The reply was, "I don't pay any rent." He agreed to pay sixpence a week to Mr. Grimshaw on his supplying him with a boiler, and in that way Grimshaw became the owner. John Bolton, the joiner, was born here in 1851. One son, Sutcliffe Bolton, was in the Helmshore railway accident.

A school teaching sewing was commenced in the Higherford Wesleyan schoolroom, and a large number of females availed themselves of the opportunity afforded. Several ladies of the village gave their services willingly for this work, and many pleasant hours were spent in the old Wesleyan school. A day school was formed during this time in the Primitive Methodist Old Chapel. With the late James Clegg and James Hargreaves as teachers, and John Bolton as assistant, the chapel soon became too small, and the day school was ultimately taught in the Congregational school.

A Trough Lane Ghost - As Told by John Bolton, an Old Sexton:- The’ were a man as lived i’ Troc’h Lane called George Wood, an’ he hed a lot o’ geese as he wer’ fattenin’ up fer Christmas. Ther’ wer’ eleven o’ these birds, an’ he spent time an’ money getting’ ‘em reight for’t market. There’s no doubt abaat it but wot these geese were as fine an’ plump as aver wer’ fed, either i’ Troc’h Lane or onyweer else. He med no secret o’ wot he wer’ doin’; he wer’ reight proud on his results an’ every mon abaat wer’ as interested in’t results as wot he wer’, some on ‘em more so, ‘appen.
It seems as a couple o’ George’s mates decided to play a trick on him an’ spirit some on his birds away. So a day or so afoor Christmas, them as hed med it up, went quietly up to wheer’t geese were kept, took seven on ‘em eawt o’ th’ eleven, an’ piked off hooam.
When George come deawn in’t mornin’ t’ fost thowt in his yed wer’ to go an’ feed t’geese, an’ when he geet to th’ pen where they shud a bin, he saw scribed on th’ ‘ut dooar i’ chalk a message dedicated to himsen. It wer’:-

George Wood, thi’ geese are good;
They’re also very fat,
Out of eleven, we’ve taken seven,
What does ta think o’ that?

As novelists sometimes state at the end of the paragraph – The situation can be better imagined than described!